The present invention relates to articles of jewelry containing precious or semi-precious gems. Typically, these articles of jewelry may be manufactured in the form of rings, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, bar pins or the like and include, for example, diamonds, rubies and/or emeralds. The present invention is also applicable to semi-precious or artificial stones. An object of the present invention is to mount gems in a visually pleasing manner to form an attractive piece of jewelry. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a ring is formed from substantially 18 carat gold (although platinum or other materials can be utilized) and diamonds as the gem stones. The present invention provides a jewelry article which maximizes the brilliance of the gems while allowing the manufacturer of the jewelry article to reduce the relative cost of the article.
Rings, particularly wedding bands having diamonds which substantially surround the wearer's ring finger, are the easiest to understand and the preferred embodiment of the present invention. For purposes of clarity, the present invention is described with respect to a wedding band ring, although it should be appreciated that the principles and concepts of the present invention can be utilized in connection with any jewelry article wherein a plurality of gems are sought to be mounted and secured in a brilliant-like setting. For purposes of illustrating the present invention, the gems to be secured and mounted are round diamonds which are mounted in a ring made of gold. A means for mounting gems such that no metal prongs are visible between adjacent gems is accomplished. Furthermore, by overlapping smaller gems with larger gems, overall brilliance is enhanced and the space between gems is reduced. This is accomplished by reducing the cost of the ring which is based in large part on the total carat weight of all gem stones and the carat weight of the individual stones.